Jeanette Nolan (December 30, 1911 – June 5, 1998) made two guest appearances on Night Court, first as Mucette Elmore, Dan's mother, who visits him in New York City with husband Daddy Bob, Dan's father (played by real-life husband John McIntire) in "Dan's Parents" in Season 2 (episode #13), then as Mrs. Smith, an elderly woman who's brought into court for "soliciting favors" to her male suitors in the home for the aged where she and they reside in the Season 4 episode "A Day in the Life" (episode #16). A veteran radio, film, and television actress who was nominated for four Emmy Awards: in 1964, 1966, 1974 and 1978.[1]

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Jeanette began her acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, CA, California, and, while a student at Los Angeles City College, made her radio debut in 1932 in Omar Khayyam, the first transcontinental broadcast from station KHJ=AM. She continued acting into the 1990s.

She appeared regularly in several radio series: Young Dr. Malone, 1939–1940; Cavalcade of America, 1940–1941; Nicolette Moore in One Man's Family, 1947–1950; and The Great Gildersleeve, 1949-1952. She appeared episodically in many more.[2]

She made her film debut as Lady Macbeth in Orson Welles' 1948 film Macbeth, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. Despite the fact that she and the film received withering reviews at the time,[3][4] Nolan's film career flourished in largely supporting roles. Viewers of film noir may know her best as the corrupt wife of a dead (and equally corrupt) police officer in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat.

In 1935, Nolan married actor John McIntire; the couple remained together until his death in 1991. Nolan and McIntire had two children together, one of whom was the actor Tim McIntire, known for his turn as the legendary disc jockey Alan Freed in the 1978 filmAmerican Hot Wax.

Nolan and McIntire worked together several times from the late 1960s on, sometimes as voice actors. They appeared in a 1969 KCET television reading of Norman Corwin's 1938 radio play The Plot to Overthrow Christmas, with McIntire as the Devil and Nolan as Lucrezia Borgia. In 1977 they appeared in the 23rd Disney animated film The Rescuers, in which McIntire voiced the cat Rufus and Nolan the muskrat Ellie Mae. Four years later, the couple worked on the 24th Disney film, The Fox and the Hound, with McIntire as the voice of Mr. Digger, an ill-tempered badger, and Nolan as the original voice of Widow Tweed, the old kindly widow who takes in Tod after his mother was killed by an off-screen hunter.

They guest starred on screen together, portraying a married couple, in an episode of The Love Boat, in 1978, on ABC-TV's Charlie's Angels in 1979, CBS-TV's The Incredible Hulk starring Bill Bixby in 1980, Goliath Awaits in 1981, Quincy, M.E. in 1983, and Night Court in 1985, playing Dan Fielding's hick parents. Nolan died of a stroke at age 86 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on June 5, 1998, and was buried in Eureka, Montana's Tobacco Valley Cemetery.[5]

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"The New Pictures", Time (magazine), Nov 1, 1948. Retrieved on 2008-12-13. “The on-again-off-again use of a Scotch burr by some of the actors, including the star, does not help; but the production's main fault is that Welles and his leading lady (Jeanette Nolan) play their roles, for most of 95 minutes, at the top of their lungs.”